Highly educated parents often pride themselves on not using baby talk with their little ones, believing that they can speed language development by using normal adult speech. It turns out, however, that the high-pitched singsong voice adults typically use when addressing babies has a name, parentese. It actually involves subtly emphasizing important syllables, lengthening the vowels, and often simplifying or eliminating the pronouns, such as saying “he” or “she” or the child's name instead of “you,” even when speaking directly to the youngster.
Baby talk actually makes language more comprehensible to youngsters. To get a feel for this kind of speech, imagine a relative picking up a baby and speaking directly to it while saying things like, “Oh, look at this precious little cutie pie! Oh, he's sooo tired. Does Edward wanna go sleepy-bye now? I think he does!”
Adults all over the world naturally use parentese when addressing babies. Research shows that little ones respond by listening longer and more intently to baby talk than to normal adult speech. This is true even if parentese is spoken in a language the baby isn't familiar with! However, language experts say that there's one aspect of parentese that does not help toddlers: parents referring to themselves as “Mommy” or “Daddy” instead of as “I” or “me,” and to their child by saying his or her name instead of saying “you.” Toddlers have a hard enough time with personal pronouns. Don't complicate it by saying things like “Mommy is going now” and “Does Susie want some milk?” Say, “I am going now” and “Do you want some milk?”
Although speaking parentese to young toddlers facilitates learning, it's probably a good idea to use correct sentence structure, especially correct pronouns, with increasing frequency as your child's comprehension improves.
